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Using the glove as a mouse

We succeeded at connecting the gyro sensor to an Arduino and getting some data out of it. However, the raw data was difficult to understand, but finally a site was found telling how the data is turned into sensible values. The gyroscope data was converted to degrees per second and accelerometer data was converted to meters per squared seconds.

This is where the old demo of a smartphone controlling the computer mouse became useful. By connecting the Arduino to a Raspberry Pi, it was possible to write code that sent similar data to the server program on a computer to tell it to move the mouse based the angular speed data from the gyroscope. We chose to use the Z axis for moving the cursor left and right and X axis for vertical movement. This felt much more natural than we initially thought. We planned to use the accelerometer to detect actual distance the glove has been moved and translate that to cursor movement, but keeping the hand still and tilting it feels easier.

As the gyroscope was working, it was time to try to build a simple prototype that can be put on the users hand. We found a piece of cloth to hold the Raspberry pi around the user’s wrist and an old glove. We attached the gyroscope to the glove and added batteries to make the device wireless. Also, to test how clicking would work with the glove the old touch surface that was used in the very first Arduino demo was added. Again, wiring the touch surface turned out to be very difficult because of the small pins, but luckily Janne came up with the idea that we could use hot glue. The glued wires seem to hold well.

It looks like the main difficulties are related to touch sensitivity. Sometimes, with the current settings, there are miss clicks and also times when pressing the touch surface seems to do nothing. These will be likely fixed by a new touch surface, which we will get from Canatu later on.

Our smart glove even has two USB ports and HDMI. But wait there’s more! Call now and get two additional usb ports and a 3.5mm audio mini jack port!